Red, Green, and Something In Between
by TotallyNotAGhost
Summary: After finally getting used to ghost powers Danny thinks he has it all figured out, but after some weird changes and small slip ups, his world shifts and his secret is put to the test


_Quick authors note, im alive! wow! first off, ive never taken bio so im so so sorry if my story is a little wonky where that is concerned... just an idea i had and hopefully itll be able to lead where i want it to as i go! if you have any suggestions on what to do to make this better for sure let me know. constructive criticism always welcomed. also ill try to answer any questions in the next chapter, but hopefully i did a good enough job that its clear.. so far. ok thanks hope you like it!_ -

It had been a long day for Danny. He had missed almost all of his English class fighting off random ghosts, and as much as he disliked school, he had to admit that one day without ghosts would be a nice change from his normal routine. If only that would ever happen. He let out a tired sigh as he walked to his last class for the day and promised himself that if his biology teacher showed another video today that he would NOT fall asleep. Not like yesterday. Definitely.

The halls of Caper high were always crowded, but he managed to make it to class before the late bell. He tossed his bag down next to the desk, celebrating silently that he had gotten to the class on time for once. Beside hem, Tucker and Sam were bickering about something, probably food, and he rolled his eyes and laughed. As tiring as the whole thing got, he was always enjoyed seeing his friends happy.

"Hey Danny, tell tucker for the last ti-" Danny didn't even let Sam finish the sentence before interrupting

"I'm not even going to humor you guys with a response. I've heard this whole thing more times than I've sent ghosts back to the Zone, can't you two just agree to disagree?" Danny laughed at the end; he didn't even think he was overexaggerating. This discussion had been happening long before his parent's portal had even been under construction and even with the amount of times, he had to send the Box ghost back, 5 years of bickering could not be beat. The funny look on Tuckers face only confirmed his suspicions.

"how did you even know what she was going to say?"

He sighed "Because that's all you two ever talk about aside from 'extracurricular' activities." Sam and Tucker looked at each other and shrugged. They knew he had a point.

"We talk about other stuff sometimes too you know," Sam said proudly as she nudged Tucker "like the lab were doing in class today." Danny froze. He had forgotten all about the lab. He was lucky that he had even managed to grab his binder for the class, but that didn't change the fact that there was no way he had retained enough from previous classes to follow the lab instructions.

"crap! I completely forgot about the lab today, I tried to do the prelab work this morning but had to run off halfway through… I don't think I even have it here" He threw his hands up as he remembered leaving the half-finished sheet on his desk that morning. Sam and Tucker laughed

"lucky for you," Sam said pulling a sheet out of her bag, "we were talking about something else last period – specifically the lab." She handed Danny the paper, on it was a fully filled in prelab. "but hey, if you don't eve want to hear about it then I'm sure Tucker could have it. Felucca would be more than happy if he could read his writing for once" She cocked an eyebrow towards Danny as she waved the paper in Tuckers direction.

"Hey! My writing isn't that bad!" Tucker yelled sending the three into more laughs. Danny took the paper from Sam and thanked her; she really did look out for him a lot.

Around them the class quieted, as the teacher signaled the beginning of class "Ok everyone, I hope you all have hair ties and closed toed shoes today. As you all know we will be doing the microscopes lab today. This is on the use of microscopes, preparation of slides, and then a fun activity about blood at the end. Bags under your desks, and please grab a lab instructions sheet as you head to your stations." Danny and Sam nodded at Tucker as he walked over and grabbed them all sheets, then walked over to their area.

"I really hope you two were able to understand the prelab, because even though there are microscopes in my basement it doesn't mean I know how to use them." Danny said as he skimmed the instructions sheet. It wasn't as though he liked being so clueless on class material, in fact he really liked biology, he just had no time to be in class… or do homework… or read the textbook. He always wanted to learn more but it just seemed like there was always something more important that need to be dealt with immediately. Unless he was at home at the dinner table, sometimes then he wished something would come up. Sure his parents knew more than he could ever learn at high school, especially his mom, but the risk of launching them into a full ghost rant wasn't worth the pain.

"Don't worry dude, we've got this. You just enjoy the lack of ghost activity today, its rare to see only one. Better bask in the free time while you can." Tucker sent him a friendly smile as he and Sam began filling in the answer sheets. Times like this made him so happy he had such great friends; he would definitely be swamped without them.

After a while Mr. Felucca spoke up "Ok class, most of you should be done the first part of the lab now, so I'll explain the last part. Each ember of your group will come grab a clothespin, a premade slide, and a bandaid. you'll prick your finger then put a little but bit of blood on the glass slide and use your newfound understanding of microscopes to look at each person's blood. Hopefully you'll see something new. If you notice anything different between the prepared slide and our own make sure to include it in the lab report later. This will help you learn about blood, as well as slide preparation!" Almost immediately Sam and Tucker swivelled towards Danny

"Hey this'll be cool, we can look at the differences between your blood and ours, maybe even see a little green in there!" Tucker nudged Danny's side as he nodded excitedly

"I don't think that's such a good idea. There's a reason I haven't looked at it yet-"

"Aside from the fact that you don't know how to use a microscope" Sam sarcatically shot in as Danny took a breath. Tucker giggles and nodded as Danny shot back a glare

"aside from that – I can't risk someone here seeing it. Sure, they see some blood in Phantom's ectoplasm and they'll probably pass it off as weird contamination, but here FENTON cannot be seen with the opposite."

"Danny my guy, you're _totally_ overrating. No one here will see it, and even if they do you can just say its ecto contamination from your parents cooking or whatever"

Tucker had a point, it was unlikely that anyone here knew enough about ghosts stuff to argue with him if he looked confident enough, but something in his gut told him it was a bad idea

"look guys, I just don't want to take any risks I don't have to. If you two really want to, then after school we can go to my house and use my parent's equipment. Its all the stuff we need, but they're not home tonight so no one will even have a chance to get the slide before we can clean it." Better safe then sorry, his secret was important to him and he wasn't ready to lose it over something as dumb as a lab that he would probably fail anyway.

Sam shook her head and sighed "I guess if you're that worried about it then we can do that do it tonight, and worst-case scenario we can always claim we just didn't clean the slide properly first"

"Thanks, now… which knob is the fine one again?"

The rest of the class finished without a problem, and the three headed down the halls towards Danny's locker. He knew he had detention for missing English, but he was genuinely curious about his blood. His parents were so adamant that ectoplasm and blood could never be together that he wondered what made his different. No matter what they would end up finding, it would probably interesting. Plus, the chances of a ghost showing up half way through and making him leave early were so high that he didn't really think it was worth going to detention anyway.

When they got to Fentonworks the three quickly dumped their bags in Danny's room and rushed down to the lab. Danny showed them where all the gear was, and they even managed to find some more useful things like a centrifuge. They figured if the ectoplasm got in the way they would probably be able to separate it using that, so they grabbed it as well. The three made quick work of setting everthing up on a workbench.

"ok so here is the slide you need to use Danny, these microscopes are a better than the school ones, but the slides are the same idea" Sam pulled out a slide and handed it to Danny. As he got to work prepping it like they had earlier that day, he laughed to himself. It was funny how his pain tolerance had changed in the last couple months. Before the accident he would tear up over a papercut, but now… nothing really phased him, least of all a pinprick. He liked to tell Sam and Tucker that it was because of the constant injuries he got from fights, but really nothing would ever compare to the pain that he felt in the portal that first time. He wasn't sure if it had messed up his pain receptors or if it was so extreme that deep down, he knew nothing would ever compare… but either way it kind of scared him to think that even in human form being half ghost made him that different from everyone else.

The idea of being different brought him back to the task at hand. He handed off the slide to Sam but continued his thought. After this they would really be able to tell just how different his human form was from a normal person. If his parents were right about the incompatibility of organic matter and ectoplasm, then his weird Christmas coloured blood couldn't be the two liquids just sort of coexisting… it would mean that even as a human he was different. It really made him feel weird to think about. Though hopefully if looked at separately as just blood and just ectoplasm they would be no different than what his parents worked with daily and what he had seen that day in class, making his blood just another thing to throw in the 'weird halfa exceptions' bin.

Without realizing Danny had jumped down a thought rabbit hole of strange things about him, only to be pulled from his thoughts by Tucker "Hey man come over and see this, its so weird!" the words didn't really instil that much confidence in him though. "if you look through here you can really see the ectoplasm mixed in, its weird but that's not all" Tucker then hurried over to Sam, who as some point had found a second microscope and was working away

"So I had some trouble comparing it to Tucker and my slides from school because they're, you know, not here, so I made a new slide with my own blood to compare," Danny nodded; he didn't understand biology but he was pretty sure that Sam was just spouting common sense. "and even after I made a slide with my blood, it was hard to compare because of the little bits of ectoplasm in there, so with the help of your parents centrifuge hopefully in a bit well be able to look at just the blood." Danny nodded and sat back, thinking about his parents' words again. They said how incompatible the two substances were, but what about their reactions to his blood? If it was already a mix then how would that work? A quick motion broke him from his thoughts once again

"Earth to Danny? Can you hear me?" Tucker quickly waved a hand in front of Danny's face, which Danny pushed away.

"Yeah I'm just thinking. My parents have all these ideas about how blood and ectoplasm mix, but what about with my blood? Do you think it would be any different?"

Sam was first to reply "well obviously its going to be different, you can use ghost powers as a human and you'd probably bake from the inside out if the ectoplasm hurt you while charging a blast or when your eyes glow."

"Yeah but that's MY ectoplasm, not random Zone stuff like my parents find. And even as Phantom I still get burns sometimes."

"Well if you're really wondering we can always just mix some of our blood onto yours, if it fizzles out of existence then you probably shouldn't go donating blood anytime soon… but if not, then maybe your ectoplasm is different then Zone stuff?" Tucker nodded then added

"Yeah and afterwards we can add ectoplasm to it to see if it'll make your blood fizzle out, and then you'll know that you have to keep clear of raw ectoplasm just like the rest of us. Im sure your parents HAZMAT suits aren't there for the looks."

Their ideas seemed to make sense so danny lead them back towards the first microscope; Sam pricked her finger, then dropped a bit of blood on the slide that had Danny's. The three took turns looking, and when they all agreed to the fact that it didn't change at all Danny let out a sigh of relief. This meant that he was still basically human, and the thought of that made him happier than he ever wanted to admit. Tucker noticed the relieved look on Danny's face and smiled "see? You're no more special than me or Sam like this, I bet the raw ectoplasm will damage the sample too, you were all worried for nothing!"

"I wasn't worried, just... curious" he said back, rolling his eyes

"right, and this Thursday I'm trying Tucker's mom's meat loaf. Danny, we know when you're worried about something, you really can wear your emotions on your sleeve sometimes. We know the last few months have been crazy, but this is proof that less had changed than you thought, right?"

Danny nodded; Sam was right, while a lot had changed, following his parents' theories that applied to humans was definitely proof that he still could be filed under the title of 'human' even if it was only half the time. "you guys are right, thanks for doing this with me, it means a lot."

"more than the fact that we carried you through that lab today?" Tucker asked with a laugh

Danny giggled in return "yeah, more than that. Now let do that ectoplasm test and get this cleaned up." They nodded and went to work.

Later that night Danny flew high above the city smiling to himself. This day had been the best that he could remember. Recently he had been so overwhelmed with ghost stuff and schoolwork that he hadn't realized how lucky he was to be there. He had great friends, passing grades (Barely, but hey even C's get degrees), and who could complain about being able to fly? But back to the task at hand; so far, his patrol had turned up nothing, and he was beginning to think that this day may be able to end perfectly as well, maybe he would be able to get to bed early tonight!

With a quick loop de loop he laughed and turned towards home. People always said that life had ups and downs, and after all the… downs… he had the last few months, today was definitely the feel-good day that he was looking for. Heck, even the ghosts didn't bother him too much! But then a frown crossed his face. The day had gone perfectly… too perfectly. With his luck there was no way it would continue into the week. He just had a sinking that something would go wrong. As he descended below the clouds and Fentonworks came into view, he suddenly remembered. He had skipped detention. That was probably the cause of this bad feeling. Definitely. There was no way Lancer would let him off easy for that. But at least that was something he knew how to deal with – not hard just time consuming and mind numbing.

Content that he had solved the riddle about what would have to happen for the universe to allow this day to be so great, he flew into his window and transformed back, only thinking of the awesome sleep he was going to get that night.

Unfortunately that would be that last time he pushed aside gut feelings, because tomorrow was a new day, and Lancer's rage was going to be the least of his worries.


End file.
